Posts Tagged ‘1928 Model A Ford inside door latch’

Well, it’s late Sunday afternoon and time to add another post to 1929fordhotrod.com . This weekend I decided to stay home and work on my 1929 Ford roadster. I even helped my wife Janis make some salsa and relish using produce from our garden. About now, I find that I am loosing interest in the outdoor car shows, cruise in’s, and swap meets. The feeling for working in the shop is starting to become a strong one, and I guess that is a good thing. It will start to get cold outside and snow is not far off here in South-western Ontario Canada. I find that I tend to get more shop time throughout the late fall, winter, and early spring. During the warm weather, outside activities need to be taken advantage of. These are some of distractions that take hold of many custom car builders. Remember, you need to maintain focus and desire to finish any project.

The topic today will be on how to install a 1928 – 29 open car / roadster inside door latch. The original1928 Ford Model A roadster did not have an outside handle. I tend to like nice clean lines on the outside of custom cars, so I decided to use the 1928 Ford Model A inside door latch on my 1929 Ford Roadster. Even when it came time to paint my 1987 Corvette convertible, I decided to have the outside door handles shaved off and use an Auto Loc system to open the doors from the outside. Back in the mid 1970’s I shaved the handles off my 1970 Chevrolet Impala using Mercedes Benz Unimog starter solenoids to open the doors. So for me it makes sense not to have outside door handles on a car. It must be in my blood or DNA, so no outside door handles for me!!

I remember when I first received the reproduction door latches for my 1929 Ford roadster wondering how they would fit into the doors. At the time I did not realize that part of the latch is tucked up behind the inside door panel. I was ready to start cutting and modifying the latches so they would fit in the door. Fortunately, a little voice in my head said to hold on and let’s figure this out before performing surgery on the latches. After, looking at a friends 1929 Ford pickup, I realize how everything would go together. It’s so simple!!